Baby Number Two

Much to my horror, I realized that I haven't bothered to post an announcement that Kate and I are expecting a second child! I did throw a post and some ultrasound pictures up on Facebook, which means that anyone who follows this blog (both of you) probably already knows this bit of news. But just for completeness sake I'm going to post a quick note here as well!

Yes, our family is going to be expanding by one very soon. Kate is due in late February. We're going to wait until the baby arrives to find out its gender and we (finally) have some names picked out. The boy names were the hardest for some reason. Fair warning, we're keeping our name ideas to ourselves as well.

Here's an ultrasound picture of our soon-to-arrive bundle of joy, taken in early October:



We're both very excited by this new member of the family. Tessa is aware that there is a baby in Mommy's belly, but that's about it so far. She's been practicing swaddling and rocking a baby by using her dolls, but she still tends to carry her dolls by the hair or shake a doll out of its swaddling...so I'm thinking she won't be helping with little sibling real soon. :-) She does plant kisses and hugs on Mommy's belly, all intended for the baby.

Kate is far enough along that we can all feel the baby move pretty easily. The other night Kate was a little worried because she couldn't remember feeling the baby move most of the day. On a lark (since I was playing music for Tessa already), I turned on some rock music (it might have been Queen) on my iPod and placed it against Kate's belly. Almost immediately, baby started dancing around! :-D

Kate had the same nausea and lack of appetite during the first trimester that she did with Tessa. By a couple weeks into the second, though, she was largely over it. She still isn't always real motivated to eat things, especially (paradoxically enough) when she's really hungry. But as long as she nibbles here and there, she's been able to stay interested in eating most things.

(She did go through about a two week period between first and second trimesters where all she wanted was pizza. This is not as much fun as one would think.) ;-)

Anyway, as I said, we're really looking forward to expanding our family. Tessa is a joy to have -- at least 90% of the time. Kate is a wonderful mother. And I find that being a father feels both natural and amazing at the same time.

That's it for now. As always, thanks for reading and I hope you're having a great day.

Busy Relaxing Weekend

I hate to tell my gaming buddies this, but not playing on the weekends is really helping me get stuff done around the house as well as spend quality time with my wife and kid.

Another pleasantly productive weekend. Saturday was pretty low-key where Kate, Tessa, and I spent the morning just hanging around the house. Kate got some cleaning down while Tessa and I played World of Warcraft. (Tessa is very concerned that my Tauren Warrior doesn't have any shoes, but she also thinks my Blood Elf Mage has big ears and jumps well.) While Tessa napped in the afternoon, Kate and I prepped a few meals for our friends Bill and Tammy, who recently welcomed a daughter into their family. We remembered when Kate's Dad visited with us and cooked three or four meals for us after we got home with Tessa...and it was a blessing not to have to do any cooking or cleaning. We tried for the same, sending a lasagna, a chicken tetrazini, a chicken and black bean casserole, and a dozen or so homemade dinner rolls to the new parents. Kate also put together a apple-cranberry crisp as a dessert for dinner at the Keyes' home.

Dinner was a "mole" chili that our friend Ron put together. Let me tell you, if you ever have the opportunity to have my amigo Ron cook a soup or stew for you, take the chance! It was a great chili, and everyone seemed to enjoy Kate's dessert as well. We gave the sizable leftovers (Kate made a double batch) over to Bill and Tammy in case their sweet tooth needs tending to.

Here's some pictures of their baby girl, named Felicia Irene Keyes:





Great hair, huh? :-)

That evening, I got to feel like a real father because Tessa wanted me to read her bedtime stories while Kate hopped into the shower. When Tessa started to whimper that she didn't want me to leave her, I pulled her into my lap and held her close, rocking and bouncing her gently. She nuzzled on in and within ten or so minutes, she had dozed off. That's right - my daughter fell asleep in my arms. I may have fallen in love with her all over again; I'm not sure. :-)

After Tessa was down, Kate and I played a couple rounds of our new expansion of the Dominion game. I have to say - this is a fun game. Many thanks to our friend Dave and Gina for introducing it to us!

Sunday morning was a lazy affair. Kate's lingering cough had kept her up part of the night so she wasn't in a hurry to get up. Fortunately, we had a couple of church services to choose from so we stayed in bed an hour or two longer. Tessa started to have a fit, but again Daddy was able to hold her close and calm her down. Yay me!

We went to church then ran some errands around town real quick. Then we brought Tessa home and with some effort put her down for a nap. While she was resting, Kate and I continued our weekly project - namely, picking a section of the house and totally weeding/organizing it. We've been working on our office/guest room and I've been mercilessly throwing tons of stuff out in an effort to trim down our stock of stuff and furniture. And I have to say, it's felt really, really good to do so. It continues to amaze me how much stuff I keep around that I really don't need or even want. And it's also amazing how GOOD I feel once I've gotten rid of it.

So Kate and I plowed through the office again, this time with the goal of consolidating our books and other materials from four bookshelves down to the three. We were more than successful, and we now have a large bookshelf ready to be hauled away for Arc or Goodwill. We're hoping to do the same with our computer desk next since it's really more desk than we need...but that'll be another weekend.

I also did a little weeding of my t-shirts and the books we keep in the hallway and bedroom. More decluttering progress!

By the end of it, neither Kate nor I felt like cooking the dinner we had planned. So instead, I fished out some money from my cash jar (my "allowance" - made up of the dollars we save by my taking the bus to and from Longmont instead of driving) and made a quick hop over to King Soopers to buy a discounted large pizza and some broccoli-cheese soup for our dinner. Boy, after a productive afternoon and evening, some high-fat, greasy chow sure tasted great! ;-) I also grabbed a cheesecake slice for dessert but it was getting late and I have work in the morning. So we're saving the dessert for tomorrow.

All in all, I gotta say that I'm enjoying these weekends. The work around the house not only feels good to get done, but it's also good time that I spend with my wife and Tessa. Kate truly appreciates the time together as well as the completed chores so it's a win in both our eyes.

Here's hoping we can keep up the pace. :-)

As always, thanks a lot for reading and I hope you're having a really great day.

Welcome to the World - Fletcher Atticus

Kate and I got to meet our newborn nephew down in Denver last night. Jason and Emily's son Fletcher Atticus Anderson was born at 11:24pm on July 5th. He weighed in a tiny 6lbs .04oz and measured 19.25" long. Parents and baby returned home yesterday afternoon and are doing quite well.












Kate and Emily's Dad Brendan was also able to visit for the week and got to spend some time with both his grandchildren.






For her part Tessa was alternately dubious...



...and overjoyed...



...at the prospect of a new cousin nearby.

Congratulations to Emily and Jason on the new arrival. And welcome to the world, Fletcher!

Thanks for reading...I hope you're having a good day!

Half a Year of Parenthood

Okay, okay...I know I should be updating more often than a quarter of a year. I'll try to do better.

(Those who believe that obviously don't actually know me.) :-)

Our daughter Tessa turned six months old on Monday. It's hard to believe that Kate and I have been parents to such a wonderful blessing for that long. I find myself in that old paradox where it feels like she's always been part of our family...and yet she still seems so fresh and new to us. I don't want her to grow up too fast...and at the same time I can't wait to see what she learns to do next.

She has grown up amazingly fast, I think. Just recently we finally took down the lovely handmade cradle that my Dad made for us because Tessa just doesn't fit into it anymore. Please observe...

This is Tessa lying in her cradle for the first time when we brought her home:



And this is Tessa trying to squeeze into it at the end of May:



See the difference?

You don't?

How about this...?

This is Tessa with her Mommy back in December:



And this is a more recent picture (May) of Tessa with Mommy:



She's getting big!

Okay, last one...

Here's Tessa in her car seat at about four days old:



And here's Tessa at exactly six months:



She is rapidly turning into her own little person!

She's rolling over like a pro now and seems to be grasping the concept of 'skooching' though she hasn't mastered it yet. She gave us a scare a week or so ago when she rolled right out of our bed while I was half-dozing. Naturally she was fine - just startled, which got her crying for a while.

She loves to stand up (with help from her Mommy and Daddy). We're holding an "Excersaucer" for Emily and Jason and found out that Tessa loves it! She'll play with the toys but mostly she likes bouncing up and down.

While we were at my parents' house, we also learned that Tessa loves to swing. Kate is trying to make regular outings to the nearby park so Tessa can plop down in the bucket swing for a while.

She's showing an interest in solid food, staring at it when Kate and I have dinner. Kate's still exclusively nursing on demand but we'll probably be considering some homemade food options in the next month or so.

She's also a grabby little thing. Anything that she can get a hold of, she will...and usually ends up cramming it into her mouth. Last Sunday, we left our church bulletin within reach and she mangled it. At her well-child doctor's appointment this morning, she had fun shredding the paper lining of the examination table.

I'm not going to lie and see that everything is absolutely perfect all the time. Tessa has her moments...like when she refuses to settle down and take a nap, even though it's obvious she (and her parents) need one. Or when she gleefully explodes out of her diaper for the third night in a row. Or when she grabs a hold of Mommy or Daddy's hair, yanks hard, and won't let go.

But these are all minor things and they quickly pass. Truly, Tessa is a joy and a wonder and I love every single opportunity I get to watch her grow.

Happy Six Months, Baby Girl! Daddy loves you so much! :-)

As always, thanks for reading...and I hope you're having a great day!

After Three Months of Parenthood

So...it's been over three and a half months since our daughter Tessa was born. I'm currently using that as my excuse for not posting in so long. :-)




A lot has happened in Tessa's first three months. For one thing, she's growing like a weed! Even though Kate and I see her every day, we still find ourselves startled by how much bigger and more aware of things our little girl is. She has already outgrown the beautiful hand-made cradle that my Dad built for us. We've moved her into the larger KinderKare crib that my sister gave us. She took to both without much trouble at all.

From the beginning, Tessa has been a great sleeper...as long as we remember to let her sleep. I remember that first month or so being very stressful to me because Tessa always seemed to have a meltdown in the late evening...timed conveniently with Kate and my preparations for bed. Tessa seemed extremely clingy to Kate and refused to be consoled if Kate was not holding her at night. That was a really frustrating time for me because I felt so helpless that I couldn't calm my child down. We eventually came to realize that the main problem was that Tessa was literally too tired to sleep. We'd been waking her up for meals and diaper changing and what not instead of letting her sleep as long as she wanted. It turns out that Tessa is extremely grumpy when she doesn't get enough sleep. So nowadays we let her fall asleep whenever she wants to...and we let her sleep as long as she likes. Her record is seven hours! When she gets enough sleep, she's very chipper and happy during her wakeful hours...and even seems to fall asleep better when we put her down.

Tessa has been co-sleeping with us at night. We may lay her down for a nap in her crib or on a blanket on the floor...but she sleeps between us at night. This was primarily for ease of nursing and to make sure Kate and I were aware of any complications she might have at night. I was concerned at first about co-sleeping because I was certain that I'd end up rolling over and squashing Tessa. But thankfully that just doesn't seem to be happening. I don't know if there's some unconscious mechanism in a parent's brain that prevents them from harming his kid. In any case, it's worked out well...and I find that I really like rolling over in the morning to find my wife and daughter lying there beside me.

Tessa's repertoire of sounds has grown over the months as well. She used to just make wailing, crying noises...which I have to admit were not that endearing. Next she learned how to make little 'ahht' sounds to indicate she was happy or excited. Then she figured out how to make humming sounds, resulting in 'ahht-mmmrrmm' being her choice phrase. Now she performs variations of the same noises, though it always seems to be an effort for her...and she often looks affronted when we laugh at her. She also likes to 'sing' - in which she'll make those humming noises at her toys or the window for long periods. She sometimes sounds like she's singing herself to sleep. I'm certain that she'll be saying 'Mommy' any day now.

Our daughter has also proven to be quite adept at socializing with strangers. She was being passed around and held by people other than her parents when she was four days old. And she continues to be adaptable. She is rarely scared by strangers coming up to talk to her. She is very quick to smile at anyone who's willing to smile back at her. This has predictably made her a serious charmer, eliciting coos and compliments wherever she goes. I'm starting to suspect that she knows what she's doing...

Lastly, Tessa has started rolling over. I think it started when we would put her in the cradle. She figured out that if she lifted her feet up, gravity would tilt her over and presto, she was on her side. At some point, she figured out how to push herself up from a tummy position and roll over to her back. We're not sure how conscious this process is...since Tessa often looks rather startled to find herself looking up at the ceiling when she's been on her side a moment ago. She's also an accomplished 'scoocher' - meaning that she has learned how to push herself forward with her feet. If her feet connect with anything solid, she knows to straighten her legs and move herself up an inch. Rinse-repeat...and she's sliding off of her floor blankets in no time. By the same token, she kicks with her feet to get herself rotated when she's lying down. We'll set her down for a nap...then come back to find that she's spun around 240 degrees. She also really likes to be upright, either sitting in our laps or 'standing' up with one of us supporting her under her shoulders. Her days of immobility are probably numbered.

Kate had decided that she would resign from the Poudre River Public Library in order to stay home with Tessa. She had considered staying on with the library - especially since she's been with the organization on and off for over a decade - but she was certain that if she tried to be both an employee to the library and a mother to Tessa, she would end up shortchanging one or the other. She decided that Tessa the greater priority. As it turned out, after a chat with her supervisor Tova, Kate would not be fully resigning. Kate had asked if it was possible to come back as a 'substitute' sometime later in the year (assuming Tessa was okay with that). Tova liked the idea and said that they would simply change her job position and keep her on the payroll. This has allowed Kate to pop in for a short shift to help train folks on scheduling or teach one of the public computer-use classes. When she goes into work, she either brings Tessa along or has someone meet her at the library to mind the little girl while Kate does her thing. It's been a good arrangement thus far.

Our crowning achievement with Tessa was when we took her with us to see a performance of "The Secret Garden" at the Union Colony Dinner Theatre in Greeley. It was Kate's birthday weekend and she really, really wanted to see this performance - it was the main reason we had purchased season ticket to Union Colony last year. We knew it was a risk to take a baby with us, but the management of the theater said it wouldn't be a problem and set us up with a table on the edge so Kate could duck out if necessary. As luck would have it, Tessa was perfect! Kate fed her during dinner before the show began and before long Tessa was fast asleep and dozed through the entire performance. She even received compliments from other patrons about how amazingly well behaved she was! What a good girl!

So there have been a lot of changes to our little girl over the last couple months. You can see the obvious ones in the pictures at the beginning of this post, which were taken shortly after Tessa was born...and these ones that follow, which were taken here in late March. She has changed a lot!




While it's far from always perfect (Tessa has her meltdowns just like any baby), parenthood hasn't (in my opinion) been a major adjustment to our lives. Yes, we've had to get used to taking Tessa into account whenever we want to go somewhere, even just running errands. Our days and nights are often broken up by Tessa needing food or a diaper change. But overall, it really hasn't been that bad. The financial burden hasn't proven that much thanks to the generosity of friends and family as well as the lifestyle we've chosen. We were never the most active of couples so adjusting to staying home with a baby wasn't much of an adjustment. In fact, sometimes we find ourselves wondering, "Is this really our own baby? Aren't her parents going to be back soon for her?"

But we love our little girl. There's no denying that. She's all ours and nothing is going to change that. And the best part is....I think Tessa herself knows it. :-)

Thanks for reading - I hope you're having a great day!

It's a Girl!

I'm a little late on the update here but it's been a week of adjustment and catching up on sleep. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

On Monday December 14th, 2009 at 6:49am, Kate and I welcomed our beautiful daughter into the world. Her full name is Teresa Claire...though we plan on calling her Tessa. Her birth was easily the most wonderful thing that I have ever had the privilege of witnessing. Her addition to our home truly makes us a real family...and I for one count myself as immensely blessed.



When I got home from hanging out with my hoodlum friends on Saturday night, Kate mentioned that she was feeling something that could be contractions. We noticed that her belly got very tight when she felt these contractions...but we didn't want to jump the gun just yet. Instead, we decided that we would go to bed as planned and just see how the contractions progressed through the night. This was especially because at the time the contractions were very irregular and spaced pretty far apart. We were hopeful that this was Early Labor and that we would soon be entering the downhill slope toward childbirth.

The night was rough - the pain of the contractions got to the point that Kate was having trouble sleeping (which is saying something!). We got ourselves out of bed (having had minimal sleep) around 6am to start timing the contractions. After about an hour, we were fairly certain that they were regular enough to warrant a call to our midwife.

As it turns out, the midwife on duty (Dian) was already at Poudre Valley Hospital, having finished delivering someone else's baby the previous night. There was a little trouble getting in touch with her but when we finally got her on the phone, she wasn't absolutely sure if Kate was needing to come into the hospital yet. She instead suggested that we meet her at the Womancare clinic so she could give Kate a physical examination and make a judgment call at that time.

At the clinic, Dian told us that the baby's head was very low (the +2 position), meaning that we were well on our way toward the baby's birth. However, Kate's cervix (think of it as the exit door to the womb) was positioned behind the baby's head. That meant that the baby was pushing against the wall of the womb but wasn't putting any pressure where she should be. Dian suggested that we head home and try a few techniques to get things adjusted inside Kate. She also said to call if things got really strong; otherwise, she would check in with us at noon.

At home, Kate tried several different positions, always breathing, trying to get her interior adjusted properly. We discovered that a hot bath did wonders for helping her withstand the pain of the contractions...and she was even able to doze off for a half hour or so. By the time Dian called us at noon, though, the pain of the contractions was to the point that Kate was having some trouble walking and talking. I was really ready to take her to the hospital...if only so that there would be some professionals to help us evaluate what was happening inside her. Dian agreed and called ahead to have a birthing room ready for us.

We drove down to the PVH with our pre-packed labor bags and headed up to the birthing center. The nurses were expecting us and ushered us into our room...which we were glad to see came with its own jacuzzi-bathtub. The nurse (Patty) hooked Kate up to some monitors which let us see the baby's heart rate and the strength and pattern of Kate's contractions. We were glad to see that the baby was perfectly calm inside of Kate, even during the worst of the contractions. However, little progress had been made in shifting Kate's cervix around to the proper position.

A few hours passed, with Kate walking about, trying out different positions, soaking for almost an hour in the jacuzzi, and doing wonderful with her breathing techniques. I tried to stay close to her at all times, offering encouraging words or touches. To my surprise and disorientation, at some points during her contractions, Kate did not want me to touch her! This was jarring as in the past my touch has always been enough to calm Kate down. She would explain to me later that her body felt so under pressure that even my lightest touch felt like a lead weight on her body. She never snapped at me or anything...and made it very clear that she still wanted me nearby...but I only rarely tried touching or holding her.

Early into the evening, Dian reported that the cervix had finally moved into a good position. Now we would need to hope that the contractions would start putting pressure on it and force it to dilate properly. Kate was at about 1-2cm around Sunday evening. The nurse (Brittany this time and later Dorothy) and Dian left us alone to try to get some sleep and to let Kate's body do its thing, stopping in every now and again to check the baby's heartbeat.

Kate and I didn't get much sleep. The contractions were enough that Kate only managed some real rest when she was in the hot water bath. I managed an hour late into the night...but the adrenaline really didn't let me relax. I did partake in the complimentary room service that the hospital provided, ordering up a burrito with green chili for dinner. That was the first real meal I'd had since about 9am that morning. Kate of course wasn't hungry at all, though we did manage to get some smoothie and a strawberry milkshake into her system. In the meanwhile, she was drinking about two or three cups of water every hour. That was one of my jobs...to make sure she had plenty of water to keep her hydrated.

Around midnight, we discovered that after four or five hours, Kate had only dilated about 1 or 2 centimeters. This was distressing as we had been hoping for more progress than that. Everything seemed to be taking forever! Dian was very calm and told us that we had a couple of options. First, we could keep doing things naturally and see if Kate would dilate normally...though the current rate of progress indicated that this could potentially take another twenty four hours to get to the serious part of Active Labor. Second, Dian could manually break Kate's water, which would very quickly kick her labor into high gear. Dian warned that while this would speed things up, it would also mean a lot of pain in a short time.

Kate and I chose to stall a bit. We continued to have Kate soak in hot water, try different positions, and so forth to see if we could get things happening on our own. Sadly, after about an hour or two, Kate had only progressed about half a centimeter. Knowing that another day of this kind of work could leave Kate too exhausted when it came time to push, we opted to have Dian manually break Kate's water. We did have the option of having Kate take some narcotics to let her sleep and regain some strength, but we couldn't be sure if that would really help...and it still meant a longer period of Active Labor.

The breaking of Kate's water was pretty straight forward; it didn't even cause her any discomfort. As Dian predicted, Kate's contractions started getting extremely strong and steady. The pattern was obvious and she did get a few minutes to catch her breath between them. (Before this, Kate might have a strong contraction but it wouldn't fully go away, leaving her with a dull and constant pain for hours that would occasionally spike with a contraction.)

Kate was amazing. She kept moving. She kept drinking water. She kept up her breathing. She tried standing and swaying during contractions. She lay on her side during some of them. She did at least one more hot water soak. After just a couple of hours, Dian reported that Kate had made great progress, dilating to around 7cm in that time.

It wasn't too long after that when Kate said she was starting to feel the urge to push. Within an hour of Dian's last check, we were getting Kate onto the bed and into a good pushing position. Kate ended up pushing for close to four hours! This was the hardest thing for me to watch because it was so obviously painful for Kate. But when I saw the very top of the baby's head, I doubled my encouragement to her. I know that she was getting frustrated with our constant declarations of "I can see the baby's head! You're almost there!" For her, it was as if we were lying or that she wasn't getting anywhere. She was being hampered by the cycle of contractions - she would have a good strong one then a long gap before a fairly weak one...and then it would repeat. It was hard for her to make real progress for a while.

After a couple of changes of position, Kate started to get the hang of pushing. The main issue was that she would push hard, then take several gulps of air...which somehow drew the baby back inside a bit. She soon learned how to just grab a big breath and push again. It seemed like Kate would be pushing forever (and had been pushing forever) when suddenly...and I do mean suddenly...there was the baby!

As a side note, I should say that my first inclination was not to watch the actual birth of the baby. But when it started to happen, something came over me...and I had to watch. I'm glad I did because, as I said above, it was the most amazing thing. It was a miracle actually happening before my eyes. I'm never going to forget it.

Dian immediately placed the baby on Kate's belly...and the look on my wife face at the moment - all gasping and laughing and almost crying - was almost as amazing as the actual birth. The nurse Dorothy told me that I could check the gender of the baby and we found out that we had a beautiful, healthy little girl! Kate asked me which of our name ideas I wanted to use and that's when we chose Teresa Claire...or Tessa for short.

Tessa was immediately hungry and so Kate (with some help from Dorothy) started to nurse. Meanwhile, Dian had me cut the cord - another thing that I wasn't sure I wanted to do until that very moment. There was also a good deal of blood and Dian was soon calling in a couple of extra nurses. As it turned out, there was still some pieces of membrane that were still stuck inside of Kate so Dian had a doctor (wish I could remember her name) come in to 'clean out' the stuck pieces. There was also a small bit of tearing so Dian added a few stitches to finish Kate up.

While Dian and the others were working on Kate, I remember thanking God that Tessa had arrived safely and praying that I wouldn't lose Kate at this point either. Turns out I shouldn't have worried as Kate was in excellent hands. In truth, it all looked worse than it probably was.

Tessa was measured and checked and got her first bath (more of a sponge-bath) from the nursery nurses. She weighed in at 7 pounds and 6 ounces, which was a great weight. Kate was expecting a bigger baby given our family histories. Tessa also measured 19 3/4 inches long...so all in all, a really good size!

Once Kate was cleaned up and resting comfortably and all the initial checks were done on Tessa, Dian and the nurses left me and Kate alone for a little while to give us time to bond with our new daughter. I don't mind admitting that at this point the enormity of what we had been given finally hit me. Combined with the physical and mental exhaustion, I simply broke down and wept. I told Kate that I was so proud of her and amazed by what God had given us. I told her that I was terrified of the responsibility that we now bore. I almost couldn't believe how beautiful our daughter was. Bless her, Kate just held us both and told me that she had absolute faith in our ability as parents...and that God would never give us a burden that He didn't think we could shoulder.

After a couple more hours and a few more checkups, Kate and I were transferred to the recovery ward. I remember that the first thing I noticed was that our new room had a window; I hadn't realized how long I had gone without sunlight until just then. We settled in and a series of very friendly nurses came by to take care of us. It was at this point that I started trying to make phone calls and emails to friends and family to announce the good news.

Kate's appetite was back in force within a few hours of the delivery. Fortunately, the PVH cafeteria has some excellent options for the room service...and there was even a special menu for new mothers and fathers. We could both have a 'gourmet' meal on the house. Kate ended up devouring a generous lobster and steak plate while I had a stuffed chicken and rice meal. I ducked out that afternoon to tend to the cats at home (it's nice to live only five minutes from the hospital!) but came back to stay the night with Kate and Tessa.

That first night was a little rough. Tessa cried for a while and refused to be consoled. Kate and I were so tired that we were at our wit's end and actually called the nurse for help. The nurse swaddled Tessa up tight and held her a short while...and Tessa calmed right down. Or at least enough that Kate and I managed a reasonably decent night's sleep.

We checked out of the hospital the next day. Our intention was to check out in the early afternoon...but a mis-communication with our family practitioner's office delaying our doctor from visiting. Dr Kauffman came rushing in around 6pm, apologizing for the delay, and gave Tessa her final checkup. After getting the thumbs-up, we took our baby home.

At this point, we're still getting used to Tessa's habits and patterns...and I think she's getting used to ours. We were fortunate to have Kate's Dad Brendan visiting for that first week to fix us dinner and generally take care of anything we needed. By the end of the week, we felt fit enough to start making the rounds of local friends and show off the wondrous creation we made. (Although we've since been instructed by Dian to have Kate take it easy a bit more!)

I continue to be surprised at how natural it's become to care for Tessa. It's hard for me to imagine a time that I was cautious and frightened of a little infant. She's easy to carry and hold. Changing diapers and cleaning spit-up doesn't faze me. I figure there must be something pre-programmed in our brains that kicks in when a child arrives, but Kate says that it's because I was meant to be a Daddy. :-)

Looking back - even after just a week or so since her birth - it's already hard to remember the worst aspects of the labor and birth. The joy and love that has filled our home now just pushes all memory of painful ordeal right out the window. We really do consider ourselves blessed to have such a beautiful miracle as part of our lives. I for one intend to spend the rest of my life making sure we deserve her.




Thanks for joining me in welcoming Tessa to the world and to our family!

And as always thank you for reading and I hope you're having a very good day.

Pregnancy Update 4

As of this post, Kate and I have roughly a week or so before Baby's arrival. That's assuming that Baby agrees to pay heed to the scheduled due date...which I'm fairly certain he/she will not. In fact, if Baby has his/her parents' knack for timeliness, Baby won't make an appearance until Christmas! :-)

Kate's doing very well. She hasn't had any discomfort that the pregnancy books say can be normal. She does get tired very quickly...and seems to need a sit-down rest after even 10-15 minutes of activity. The only ailment she's suffered from recently is a PUPPP rash, but a little cortisone and some benadryl and she was fine in a couple of days.

Here's a pic of her from this week:



Getting big, isn't she? :-)

It's been extremely cool to be able to feel Baby moving around in Kate's belly. I've been able to feel feet, legs, and even Baby's rump pressing up against Kate's skin. Baby still tends to keep quiet when Kate's moving...but gets active when she's sitting still. Baby also reacts to noise, particularly music...but a couple of times he/she gave a twitch at Daddy's voice. :-D I'm also able to 'play' with Baby by poking or tapping Kate's belly and getting a kick or twitch in response. Oddly enough, Kate doesn't always like this game. ;-)

Another amusing twist is that Kate hasn't hit any sort of 'nesting' phases. In fact, it's been yours truly that's been anxious about making sure everything is ready for Baby's arrival. I was starting to scheme up complex plans to re-arrange the entire living room and office...and I was panicking because I didn't know how I was going to get everything done! Fortunately, Kate was able to talk me down and remind me that we don't need a huge re-structuring of the house just for one tiny tot. With that in mind, I reined by in plans to something simpler and much more manageable, which we finished up last weekend.

We're pretty much ready with furniture and supplies, having stopped at Sam's Club to pick up diapers and Babies-R-Us for other tools of the parental trade. In addition, our friend Deb and Rick gave us a changing table (which the cats think is a new fort to play on) and a car seat for the kiddo. And (best of all) my folks made us a new rocking cradle for Baby! They also brought up a glider chair for Kate, although Chiral appears to have adopted it as her own chair.

Here's some pictures:







We've finished our childbirth and breastfeeding classes (although we'll have a few weeks of postpartum classes sometime in January). We've also got Baby's baptism all scheduled out - I believe Kate's folks will be out for that event.

At our last visit to the midwives at Womancare, we were told that Baby was doing well. His/her head is pointed downward, but his/her face is looking forward. But there are some easy exercises that Kate's been doing to help encourage Baby to turn around and face the proper way. Other than that, the midwives have pronounced Baby as perfectly healthy...and looking pretty comfortable despite the squashed living space inside of Mommy. :-)

So all is well right now! We're both very excited about Baby's upcoming arrival...but Kate admits that Baby is probably easier to manage where he/she is right now. :-)

Hopefully, the next post will be a birth announcement!

As always, thanks for reading...and I hope you're having a great day!

Pregnancy Update 3

Okay, I have to admit that at this point in Kate's pregnancy, there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of 'wow-bang' activity. The visits to the midwives at Womancare are getting, well quite frankly, a bit dull. We walk in, they take a few measurements, check the heartbeat, ask if she's having any troubles, and off we go!

Don't get me wrong! I'm glad that the pregnancy is thus far rather 'boring.' The idea of impending parenthood is exciting enough without an extra-special 'thrills.'

I will however share this picture of Kate and her growing belly. This picture was taken on Oct 1st and Kate is about 30 1/2 weeks along.



This puts her into her third trimester, which means we're on the downhill slope to baby's arrival in December. As such, since Kate's a big fan of being prepared (I am as well; she's just better at it than me), we're starting to get some of our ducks in a row before baby makes his/her appearance.

For one thing, we've signed up for birthing classes through the Foothills Childbirth Education Association. We had originally hoped to get into a specialized class that taught the Bradley method of husband-coached childbirth, but the scheduling and timing didn't work out. So instead, we're reading a book entitled "Husband-Coached Childbirth" and taking this class through the FCEA for a general introduction about what to expect from the birth.

The class actually had its first session on Wednesday this week...and it was very informative! Okay, so sue me...but I honestly had no idea how the internals of a woman's body worked during childbirth. In this first class, our instructor Krista gave us a crash course in the bodily functions that occur during childbirth. I won't go into it all here, but I have to admit, I am seriously impressed with how God has put women together to allow babies to be born! Everything just operates like a smooth machine. Sure, there's always the chance of a glitch, but it's almost beautiful how it all functions.

Sorry, I'll skip over the waxing poetic here. :-)

So we went over the physiological aspect of childbirth and some general talk about relaxing during childbirth. Krista didn't lie to us - she told us that childbirth would be messy and painful, but there are things we can do to help ease the pain. The key seems to be to trust that your body knows what it's doing...so just let it. Don't focus on the part that's automatic; concern yourself with anything else that adds to your comfort. Krista and the FCEA seem to be big fans of husbands and partners helping with the birth and with minimal use of drugs - basically as natural as you can if what they'd prefer.

Krista finished with an anecdote about how one never forgets all those details related to the birth of one's child. Even when the child is grown up and getting ready to graduate from high school like her daughter is. She got rather sniffly and teary-eyed during this story...and none of us could blame her! It really hit home the kind of love that we're going to be bringing into our lives.

Oops - waxing again. Moving on. :-)

We've also started talking with our church about getting the baby baptized. We met last night with Deacon Bill and his wife from SEAS Parish. We'll need to go to a class at the church next month, and after that we'll probably plan on having the baptism in January. We're still debating whether we want to have the baptism during a regular Mass or a private ceremony. We're leaning a little bit toward the public one. We would have liked to set it up so the baptism occurred on a holiday weekend - to make it easier for Kate's mother to visit - but sadly, I'm scheduled to work both holiday weekends in January and February. In any case, we'll figure something out.

As part of the process, we chose our friends Debbie and Rick to be godparents of our baby. They are wonderful, good-hearted people that go to the same church as we do. Debbie worked with both me and Kate at the library for some years before Jason - their charming boy - was born. We've made an effort to stay in touch, get together for dinner, that sort of thing.

Here's a picture of Deb, Rick, and Jason at one of their friend's wedding:



Other than that, it's business as usual. Kate regularly feels the baby moving, usually when she's not. It's too the point that occasionally I'm lucky enough to feel a kick or push when my hand rests on Kate's belly. It's the coolest feeling! :-)

That's all to report for now.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you're having a great day!

Pregnancy Update 2

There are no new pictures in this update, I'm afraid! :-) Just wanted to give folks a few tidbits.

We had an appointment with the midwives last week and got a confirmation that everything looked great physically for Baby. The anatomy looks good - arms, legs, head, brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, etc. I forgot to mention last time...but when the technician did our last ultrasound for us, she mentioned that Baby's skin is pretty thin right now...and it was fairly easy to see Baby's skull through the ultrasound. Creepy! :-) But overall, the baby looked very healthy so far to the doctors.

Kate is also starting to feel the baby move. For a couple weeks now, she's been assuming the mild feelings in her belly were just gas or fluids shifting around...but while at the midwives clinic, Dian (one of the midwives) was checking for a heartbeat and we all heard a scratching feedback kinda noise. Dian told us that was the baby moving around...and it coincided with that odd feeling with Kate. So now, Kate knows that when she has that feeling, it's actually Baby moving around!

After Kate's next appointment in early September, we'll be expected to stop in every two weeks rather than every month. The next visit will involve some sort of glucose test and more blood being drawn. More on that after the appointment.

We also learned last night that Baby can apparently hear, especially loud noises. Kate and I went to see the G.I. Joe movie last night, which was full of loud gunshots and explosions and hard music. Every time there was an action sequence or a stretch of rockin' music, Kate says that Baby starting bouncing around. Does that mean that Baby's going to love action flicks like Daddy...or did I just traumatize my kid with the high-octane, pulse-pounding beat of that movie, thus dooming Baby to a life of easy-paced chick flicks? Guess time will tell. ;-)

Kate and I did manage a trip to the local Babies-R-Us store in the Front Range Village. We discovered that there are a lot of kitchy-cute gadgets out there that we probably won't really need...but there are also a goodly list of items that we realize we WILL need. We're hesitant to go too crazy because of our lack of real space...but maybe with a little finagling we can make some decent room. We've also had very generous offers of gifts of used-but-still-serviceable furniture from friends and family - particular my sister, my parents, and our friends Deb and Rick. We still need to take a good look at the offered items and compare 'em to the space we have.

(Now that I think of it...we were just down in Colorado Springs visiting my family and I forgot to get the dimensions of the crib that Dianna was offering us. D'oh!)

My Dad says he's going to try to build us a rocking cradle for Baby, which would be great. We're thinking that we can put it downstairs both as a spot to put Baby down for mid-day naps...and as a way to show off my Dad's woodworking skillz.

Kate is still getting used to the changing dimensions of her belly. She told me that it was weird how her bellybutton has gone from an 'innie' to an 'outie' in the last few weeks. She's taken to putting a band-aid over it to keep it from being rubbed raw against her clothes. And speaking of clothes, our aforementioned friend Deb brought over two large plastic tubs of maternity clothes for Kate to try on. Kate hasn't had the chance to do so yet but it looks like she'll have a ton of options!

We were going to sign up for a birthing class but the times of the classes didn't fit with our work schedules. (Darn weekend shifts!) Of the two most popular methods - Lamaze and Bradley - we're leaning toward the Bradley Method. Unfortunately, since we aren't able to get into those classes, we're looking into some general classes offered through Womancare - the midwives clinic. As I understand it, these classes aren't a specific method, but a general instruction as to what to expect and what both mother and father need to do during the delivery. I believe these classes would be starting in the next month or so. In the meantime, being the library folk that we are, we've checked out a book on the Bradley Method entitled "Husband-Coached Childbirth." We're also looking at DVDs from the library, in particular one called "The Business of Being Born."

Library people do research. ;-)

We're also due to check with our church about baptism classes. We're aiming to have Baby baptized sometime in January (I think) but it sounds like we'll need to attend a few classes about what the responsibilities we'll be agreeing to. I believe we'll also need to be choosing Catholic godparents for Baby, but we've got an idea for that. And, no, I'm not telling. Yet. ;-)

We're currently making tentative plans for December. Once Baby is born and we're back in the house, we'll be opening our doors to family who want to visit with us and the new little one. Friends will probably be welcome as well but family gets priority. ;-) I know that Kate's dad - Brendan - is planning on driving down for a visit. He says he'll just be waiting for us to call around announcing that Baby is here and we're home before he heads down. I think Mary Ann - Kate's mom - isn't able to promise a visit at the same time, since we're being vague about the due date, but I think she might come out for the baptism. I know my family is eager for the third grandchild and hopefully they'll also be able to make it up here. It's been since the wedding that both sides of the family have seen each other. Might be fun!

My niece Julie is especially exciting about having a new cousin. She's even offered up options for names of the baby for us: "Lily" if it's a girl or "George" if it's a boy. I told her we'd consider it. :-)

I'm sure there's some other trivia that I ought to report but since I'm cranking this out on my break at work, I'd probably better end here and continue later. Hopefully next time, I'll have even more pictures to share!

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you're having a great day!

Pregnancy Update

Sorry for the silence - been sort of a busy few weeks, especially with the California vacation that we just got back from. Woo! What fun! :-)

I thought I'd give our readers a quick update on how things are going with Kate's pregnancy. First off, we just visited Poudre Valley Hospital for a routine ultrasound, which is apparently required at around 20 weeks. (Kate is just over 21 weeks along by the way!) The initial report from the midwives at Womancare is that Baby looks perfectly normal...no obvious problems with anatomy.

Here are some of the latest images...my apologies for the quality - our scanner is defunct so I had to use my digital camera.





The baby's growth is perfect for 20-21 weeks...although Baby's legs are apparently a bit longer, roughly equivalent to 22 weeks. Guess Baby's going to be tall! :-)

Kate is also starting to show. She often wears loose-fitting clothing, even at work, so she isn't particularly obvious just yet. This is great in that we haven't needed to pick up any new clothes for her. At this rate, she should be okay for just wearing her current outfits without the need for maternity wear. (Which is a good thing since Kate is sort of dreading having to buy new clothes - she hates clothes shopping!) ;-)



Kate is also able to eat more foods now. We find that it's not necessarily what she eats that might make her ill. In fact, she simply has to be able to eat a small meal or snack every hour or two...otherwise she gets a bit sick to her stomach. She still doesn't want shrimp though, much to her chagrin. And she can't always eat too much at a sitting - not enough room in the belly, I guess. ;-)

We're also finding that her sense of smell is really, really sharp. She's very sensitive to strong odors - like perfumes and incense. Scents that she dislikes normally now hit her really hard, making her nauseous. I discovered that my friend fast food could often set her off. No KFC or McDonalds for this baby, I suppose! No buffets either it looks like. :-)

Oh, and for those who haven't heard yet...we will NOT be finding out the gender of Baby until he or she arrives in December. We would really like to try being surprised. As such, we're making sure to dream up potential names for both a boy and a girl. So far it's been easier to come up with girl names that we like than boy names...but we're working on it.

Also, due date is early to mid December. We're deliberately being vague about the time because we don't want to feel restricted to an exact day. From what we've been told, babies can show up a couple of week before or after the 'due date' without any problems. So...to keep worries down, we're keeping it open.

I've already gotten a number of questions about baby showers and baby registries. We're still waffling on a lot of these decisions. We don't know what we want for the baby yet - just a few of the necessities. We have a number of friends who have generously offered to give or sell us their old baby furniture, which will help out a lot! We also know that we won't have a lot of room to work with; Baby will probably be in Mom and Dad's bedroom. We're pretty sure that we don't want a whole bunch of toys cluttering up the house either - in fact, we actually have quite a few baby-safe toys collected from our childhoods. Books and clothes might be a possibility...but we really need to stop in at a baby store and see what sort of things are available before we decide what we really want. There will probably be things that we definitely want...things that we didn't think of...and things that we don't want anywhere near our home. :-) We'll keep you posted.

Other than all that, things are going very well. As I said, Kate is feeling pretty good - just gets tired very quickly. I'm trying to be the good husband and handle most of the chores around the house. Kate's certainly capable of moving around and helping out, but I just like to take care of her. :-)

As always, thanks very much for reading! Hope you're having a great day!

Congrats from Co-Workers

My 'new' co-workers at the Longmont Library got the news this week that Kate is expecting our first baby. As such, they decorated by desk with some balloons and left a dozen different w00t-style messages on my whiteboard (which I dubbed a 'low-tech Twitter board).

Take a look...




It was great to get this outpouring of excitement and support from my Longmont team. A big thank you to all of them!

Just wanted to share the warm fuzzies... :-)

Thanks for reading! Hope you're having a great day!

And Baby Makes Three!

Kate is past her first trimester, though her appetite is still spotty. Fruit snacks and white cheddar popcorn (and especially gingerbread) continue to be the least-nausea-inducing food ... and this week she's willing to let me grill some burgers and brats because those sound remotely good. She still gets tired very quickly but isn't really starting to show just yet, although she...

...

What..?

Oh yeah! Did I miss a step here? :-)

Sorry...let me start over.

Kate and I are expecting our first baby.

::insert cheers and fanfare here::

We found out around Easter and have been keeping it quiet until Kate's first couple of pre-natal exams as well as the first trimester.

(Incidentally...thanks to all of you who knew ahead of time but waited for us to spring the news on those we wanted to tell directly! Trust me, we appreciate it!)

Here's the little one's first photo...growing inside of Kate's middle:



Cute, huh? Baby must take after Mommy more than Daddy. ;-)

I think I'll leave this post at that for the moment - let it soak in and all.

It's amazingly cool and I can't really find all the words to describe how I've been feeling these last few weeks.

Please keep us in your prayers...and look for the newest Baby Merrell to make an appearance in early December.

Thanks to everyone for reading...and I hope you're having at least half as good a day as me! ;-)